The Transient Nature of a Star's Life
by SabaceanBabe
Summary: Sharon Valerii dreams on the Galactica, but it’s really more of a confusing nightmare


**The Transient Nature of a Star's Life**

_Author: SabaceanBabe_

_Rating: PG_

_Summary: Sharon Valerii dreams on the Galactica, but it's really more of a confusing nightmare_

_Character: Boomer, Helo_

_Category: Challenge_

_Disclaimer: Alas, but BSG is not mine. Poo._

_Author's notes: This is the result of a challenge/request from bloodfantasies. Write Galactica!Boomer/Helo: Set after the mini. Told entirely in dreamscape; may have snatches based in reality, but they, too, must be dreams, somehow. Should feature: a dog-eared copy of a book with an absurd name, a kiss, a mention of the transient nature of a star's life. Quote: Wait – they don't love you like I love you. _

and now

**The Transient Nature of a Star's Life**

"Helo? Helo, where are you?" Sharon's voice echoed eerily, bouncing from nothing and everything all at once. It doubled back on her, followed her as she searched through weirdly strobing mist.

Helo was gone, but why? Why wasn't he here? He should be here. She needed him. Everything had begun to fall apart, ever since Helo had left her._Tell me this isn't the end of everything. Give me one reason why I'm a better choice than one of the greatest minds of our time. _

"Helo!" She hated the frantic, frightened sound of her voice, but at least there was no more echo. The strobing light, too, had faded to darkness. Suffocating non-light surrounded her. Sharon felt her teeth begin to chatter and she clamped her jaw down tight to still them. The only sound that remained was mechanical – a rhythmic buzz that seemed to follow her as she searched for her missing friend.

Helo _was_ her friend. Not like Galen. Galen was her lover, but Helo… Helo stuck up for her when the others' hazing became too much for her. He was the one steady thing in her life, but where was he? "Helo!"

There came a bright flare above her, blinding her. Sharon shaded her eyes, looked up toward the light. Cutting through the dense fog that had replaced the strobing mist was a star. She felt the heat of it bathing her, caressing her bare skin. And the buzzing remained.

"Sharon, baby, is that you?" She jumped, whirled to face him, the light of the newborn star bathing his beautiful face. Not caring that she was naked – why was she naked? – Sharon ran headlong into Helo's arms. Without a word, their mouths met, seeking, hungry. His tongue tasted smoky, metallic, headier than the finest ambrosia. She didn't know why she hadn't kissed him before, why she had chosen Galen Tyrol over Helo. Her Helo.

She felt bereft when he pushed her away from him. The star at her back kept her from feeling the cold physically, but she was a block of ice inside. She needed him to melt that ice.

"Helo? Where are we? Why are we here?"

Instead of answering her, he looked over her shoulder. When she turned, all she could see was the star, no longer bright and new, but growing old. The corona that surrounded it was tinged with red.

"Hey, Boomer, this is for you." Helo handed her a book, its leather cover battered and torn, as though it had been carried everywhere with him for centuries. Confused, she took the tattered tome, stroked her fingers lightly over the gold lettering: _The Secret Lives of Tylium Ore and the Engines that Love Them_.

"Helo, I don't understand." He wasn't looking at her, though. He watched a pair of women who seemed to step out from the star, now much larger than it was before, nearly quadrupled in size. Sharon no longer felt its heat and she began to shiver.

"Starbuck?" He sounded surprised. "I can't believe it. You are like the last person I expected to see." Abandoning Sharon, Helo walked toward the two women – she saw now that it was indeed Starbuck. Beside her, looking battered and bruised, just like the cover of the book Sharon held in her hand, was…herself.

The buzzing behind Sharon grew louder, closer. She swatted at it, batting it away.

"Helo!" she shouted. "Helo, what are you doing?"

He turned to look at her then. Raised a hand, dismissing her. "You'll be fine without me. You don't need me." The light from the star began to fade as he turned and walked away from her, walked toward Starbuck and the other her – the other Sharon. A wind began to blow.

"Helo!" She wrapped her arms around herself as the ice began to harden in her veins. The star had faded into a single red eye, swaying back and forth, back and forth. She couldn't tear her eyes from it.

Against that backdrop, she watched as Helo came between Starbuck and Sharon, draped an arm over their shoulders. They returned the gesture, each snaking an arm around Helo's waist. Just before they disappeared into the darkness that surrounded the glowing red eye that had once been a star, all three of them turned and smiled at her.

"Don't you understand, Sharon?" Helo asked. He grinned at her around the lollipop in his cheek.

"It's just the transient nature of a star's life," Starbuck and Sharon said in unison, and Starbuck began to laugh. As one, the three turned and continued on their way, leaving her alone and naked and bereft.

"Helo! Wait! They don't love you like I love you!" But he was gone.


End file.
